


Tales of Montauk

by LadyNovembertina



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Family, Humor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-12
Updated: 2018-05-05
Packaged: 2019-03-17 03:38:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13650630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyNovembertina/pseuds/LadyNovembertina
Summary: Tales of Poseidon and Sally's courtship, and snippets of Percy's childhood and the roles both of them played in it.





	1. First Meetings

To Sally Jackson, there are some life changing events of life that you can remember exactly when they happened and how they came to be. One such event was how she first met Poseidon.

Surprisingly, Sally Jackson met both Poseidon and Zeus at the same time at a small stand on the beach of Montauk. She could remember clearly that unlike those sappy romance novels where they claimed that when you met the love of your life, sparks flew and both were instantly in love, what initially caught her eye was the utter spectacle and differences of the two gods' shirts. In her opinion, Poseidon's large Hawaiian shirt was the epitome of obnoxiousness while Zeus's pressed suit on the beach was just against nature. Unfortunately, when Zeus caught her staring, she was quite certain that sparks _literally_ flew when an image of a lightning bolt flickered in his hand.

This, and the fact that the man in the loud shirt was holding a trident, making her feel that they were related to the monsters and odd things she occasionally saw in her life. In the past, whenever the monsters saw her looking at them, they always made a quick getaway, causing her unable to catch them and ask questions. The two men didn't seem to be moving so she watched them and decided to later ask them about her visions while planning how to approach them without seeming like a lunatic or a stalker.

Later, Poseidon would claim that she was in luck, because his invite to Zeus on the beach had almost caused World War Three and he was much too irritated to think straight. Sally's version would be that when Zeus left in a huff, Poseidon was just trying to find a way to irritate Zeus, and what better way than to reveal to a clear sighted mortal the world of the Greek gods?

Whatever the real reason, she and Poseidon both know that that conversation changed the fate of the world, (quite literally). Amused conversations transformed into long walks along the beach, and before she knew it, Sally had caught a glimpse of the Great Prophesy. Unfortunately or fortunately, by that time, Sally knew that she was already carrying the most Illegal Baby in the World.

Unlike their first encounter, Poseidon was thinking straight, and he decided that he couldn't let her fate be the same as Hades's old lover Maria di Angelo, so he reluctantly told her the truth and had to feel resigned for watching Sally's life from the sidelines. Yet, to Sally's credit, she bore it remarkably well.

Later in life, when they met again, Hawaiian T-shirts would always be an amusing tie between them.


	2. Miracle Birthdays

It has always been a tradition to celebrate Percy's birthday at Montauk or at a beach.

Sally starts this tradition when she brings Percy to Montauk on his first birthday. To decrease Percy's godly aura in order to ward off monsters and not attract the attentions of any of the gods, Poseidon reluctantly leaves immediately after Percy is born. They both know it is for the best, and thus, Sally Jackson's first year as a mother is spent alone.

However, by Percy's first birthday, she decides to bring him back to his roots. _How is one supposed to connect with a god?_ After their separation, she didn't exactly have Poseidon on speed dial or even his address, so she supposed that the seaside would be the closest place Percy would have to his father.

Sally is too tired of being paranoid, and like so many difficult decisions in her life, she just hopes for the best. (In addition, she figures that Percy will later forget about this moment, and is thus safe in her own memory.)

But a mother never takes too many chances, and for the whole day, Sally serves as The Overprotective Mother. Afraid that Percy would trigger some kind aquatic miracle, she keeps him safely out of the water and never lets him out of her sight. Sally immediately feels bad in the evening, when Percy pouts and is near the brink of a tantrum due to lack of contact to the water, so she relents.

She almost feels that the day could be classified as _normal,_ until Percy points something out to her. In the shallows, quite a large group of fish had appeared. Abruptly, they swam together to form the words "Love you" before swimming away. Sally immediately classifies this day as the most not normal day of Percy's life.

The logical solution would have been to quickly scoop up Percy and run back to their cabin, but instead, Sally crouches in the shallows listening to Percy running and giggling in the water and thinking, _let Percy enjoy himself a bit more._

* * *

To one-year-old Percy, that day contained an even more important miracle, because after their trip, he was bought a small cup of blue ice cream.


	3. The Warning

It was an astonishingly sweltering afternoon in New York, when Sally donned her uniform and started her afternoon shift at the sweet shop, Sweet on America. After safely depositing Percy with a few toys in the back stockroom, she made her way to the counter to get ready for the hordes of people who would surely be coming in to escape the heat and buy a few treats. Compared to the fast-paced life outside of the store in New York, the store seemed peaceful, with its walls lined with barrels filled to the brim with golden caramel squares, colorfully wrapped toffees, and (Percy's favorite) assortment of multicolored candies. Almost immediately after this reflection, the bell attached to the door jingled, and she was introduced to the first customer of many that followed.

* * *

At the end of the day, everything looked weary, from the barrels of candy that had decreased substantially, to the front door that squeaked on its hinges as if it would fall off it someone dared open it again. As a precaution, Sally checked up on Percy, and slowly began cleaning up the store for its closing. It had been a long day, so when she heard the door bell tinkle _again,_ without looking up, she brusquely announced, "I'm sorry, but the store will be closing for a few minutes, is there anything specific you are loo-," before stopping mid-sentence from a sight that caused her mouth to gape open.

Poseidon stood comically out of place wearing a loud Hawaiian shirt and beach shorts in a small candy store in New York City. The only difference from when Sally had last seen him was that he sported a few grey hairs and his eyes were nostalgic. She genuinely appreciated his efforts to not make her feel so old from the grey hairs she knew she also had. Even though they both knew that he was thousands of years old, it was the intentions that counted.

Multiple questions raced in her head, each one becoming more alarming than the next. But they all came to a halt when without a word, he pulled out a scrap of paper with the words _Camp Half-Blood_ written on it along with an unfamiliar address. Sally knew what this could mean, as Poseidon had told all of the going ons of the Olympian world when they first started courting. Her only word was, "When?" To which his response was, "Soon, preferably in two years, or when the monsters start coming." Protestations of how her Percy was just _too young, too innocent,_ to have to fear supposedly mythological monsters rose to her lips and died. "There will be another way I can find, and the camp will only be the last resort," Sally stubbornly retorted, before hoping that it wouldn't ever come to that. Just as Poseidon was possibly going to tell her another reason, a startling crash echoed from the stockroom. Jumping to her feet, heart pounding, Sally raced to the stockroom, foolishly praying that their talk of monsters hadn't attracted a real one. Poseidon followed on her heels, both of them dashing to the room as is their lives depended on it.

The stockroom looked thoroughly untampered, when they arrived. Nothing looked not ordinary, and there seemed to be no signs of broken windows or other ways of forced entry. Worryingly, there also was no trace of Percy. After frantic searching in every nook and cranny, a rational part of her mind reminded her that a god was currently by her side. Turning to Poseidon, she expected to see a mirror expression of terror and worry on his face. Instead, he looked faintly amused and strolled across the room to put his hands into a barrel of blue candy. Sally almost chastised him that now was not the time to filch candy from the stockroom, when he dragged out a little toddler with black hair, green eyes, and a blue mouth stained from the candy. She didn't know to cry from relief or laugh at the sight of her toddler son being pulled from a candy barrel. Percy's only response was, "Who' you?" before trying to shove more candy into his mouth.

Poseidon only laughed and morosely handed her the paper with the information on it before leaving with a last yearning glance at the family he left behind.

* * *

When Sally and Percy finally got back to their small apartment, she found a small bag of blue candy hanging from the door knob with a note reading, " _Someday_."


	4. Nightmares

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dreams come true, but nightmares are dreams.

_~A woman's heart is a deep ocean of secrets._

* * *

Jim and Estelle Jackson smile happily, arms around each other, faces illuminated from the setting sun, from a photo taken years ago when all was normal and well. Sally's hand unconsciously traces the floral border patterns before squinting in the dim light to look at the sunny beach with the lapping waves in the background of the photo. When she closed her eyes, she can almost remember that perfect day, even though it was years ago.

Her sigh seemed especially loud in the dark room with its lone nightlight turned on, and several photo albums strewn on the bed in the little apartment where she lived with Percy. Outside in the night, thunder rumbled followed by a crack of lightning and the familiar drizzle of rain hitting the pavement. Knowing that she wouldn't be able to sleep after looking at all those photos in the dead of night, Sally quietly put the albums in a small stack before cautiously opening and shutting the bedroom door on her way to the living room in order to not wake 3-year-old Percy, who had had a miserable day of preschool, from what his teacher could tell her on the phone earlier that day.

In the living room, Sally reopened the albums she had brought with her and before long, she was drifting in memory lane, remembering scenes that she hadn't thought about in years, a world where words such as debt and worry were almost meaningless.

She quite possibly could have fallen asleep, if not for the creaking of the door, along with the dragging of a blanket. Looking into the sea green eyes of the little toddler, Sally mentally face palmed.

_How could she have forgotten that Percy almost always got nightmares when there was a thunderstorm?_

Percy, dressed in his favorite fish pajamas, dragged his blue blanket along with him as he trudged forward, rubbing his eyes, evidently just waking up from a nightmare.

Looking at Percy in the doorway, she hesitantly asked, "Was it a nightmare, dear?"

His only answer was a little nod.

Percy stood in the doorway, lower lip jutting out, refusing to cry, as Sally picked him up and set him down next to her on the worn out sofa.

"What happened, sweetheart?" Sally gently asked, knowing from experience that it always helped to ask.

"I dweamed that I was crossing a river, but I felt really heavy, like I was carwing something, and when I touched the river water, it burned, like the time I tried to take the cookies from the oven," Percy mumbled, buried in blankets evidently trying not to fall asleep.

"Do you think a story would help, sweetie," Sally inquired, slightly spooked, but deciding to go with instinct instead of reason.

"Maybe", was Percy's only answer.

With Percy snuggled up against her, Sally started to tell an old but familiar story, as Percy drifted off.

_"Once upon a time, a woman met the sea itself, but at the time she didn't know it. He was able to tell her so much about the world she could see, but not join, that at first she thought he was lying..."_


	5. Part 1: Fish Obsession

Intro:

Waiting at the fence with the other parents at dismissal time, Sally Jackson was beginning to feel slightly nervous. Preschool had let out for more than 15 minutes, and still no sign of Percy. Most of the time, when she came to pick him up, Sally could always see him peeking through the holes in the fence, blue backpack slung over his shoulder. However, this time, the crowd had noticeably dwindled, leaving on a few impatient parents. Sitting on the bench, Sally almost started to suspect that Percy had run away because of yesterday's disagreement.

Yesterday after school, Percy had asked for a goldfish. Looking about their small, crowded New York style apartment, she had reluctantly refused him, leaving a wailing little boy in the center of the living room. For the rest of the evening, he had sulked, and morosely left for school this morning. Tapping her foot and clutching her bag, Sally was almost about to enter the school to look for Percy herself, when she noticed a lone figure dressed in a bright blue shirt run out of the building.

The bright blue was easily noticeable and sighing with relief, she started towards Percy. But by the time he got near enough, she stopped in her tracks, not believing her eyes, for clutched in Percy's hands was -

a fishbowl with a lone fat goldfish swimming inside.

Percy's wide, maniacal grin almost made Sally think that he had stolen the class pet until Percy shoved a yellow post-it note into her hand with the teacher's neat scrawl on it that immediately stopped her speculations.

As it turned out, Sally would have to survive a week with Percy and a goldfish named Jaws.

All recipes of disaster sound easy but are hard.

Take-the-class-pet-home week was going to be the death of her.

* * *

Day 1

_Lesson 1: I will not feed Jaws, peanut butter._

"Percy, what are you doing?!"

The telltale light brown streak across his face, and the sticky hands submerged in the fish bowl with the empty peanut butter jar on the counter told Sally without words what had happened. Dread curled at the bottom of Sally's stomach as Percy turned around, with a guilty countenance and pouted, "Jaws looked pretty hungry, and Miss Gates _did_ say in her instructions to feed him promptly once a day."

Sally Jackson resisted the urge to face palm.

She _knew_ she should have rushed to feed Jaws before Percy could get there.

* * *

Day 2 a.k.a Obsessive Fish Disorder

_Lesson 2: I will not have an unhealthy obsession with a really fat goldfish._

"Peeerrccy, do you want to go to the store with me?"

At his small desk, Percy's nose was pressed against the fish bowl glass, and he gave no sign of even being alive until a small audible "no" was heard. Sighing, Sally turned to lock the front door. Percy's obsession with Jaws was becoming slightly fishy.

What a bad pun.

_One-and-a-half hours later..._

The sun was just setting when Sally got back home laden with grocery bags.

Percy was still at the fish bowl, his wide eyes following the movements of the fish.

Sally Jackson was becoming to get slightly irritated with the presence of the fish.

Percy's obsession with it was _just unnatural._

When she tried to tempt him to leave his position with blue candy, she was relieved to see Percy's eyes light up, until she remembered a minor detail, and corrected in an attempted stern voice, "No, I'm sorry but you aren't allowed to give any to Jaws. Sharing is caring, but in this case, sharing might hurt Jaws."

This minor backtrack only served for Percy to skulk, some water to spout out of the fish bowl, and for Sally to be astounded all over again.

Blue candy was something that Percy never _ever_ gave away, let alone shared willingly.

She would never cease to be amazed.

Sally Jackson's initial bad feeling when Percy had skipped out of school bringing Jaws, was becoming increasingly clear to her as days went by.

 


End file.
